


Gertie's Guide

by Statementends (Blueberryshortcake)



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: 90's Kid Jon, Gen, Gender non-conforming Jon, Kid!Fic, Sewing, Societal Homophobia/Transphobia mentioned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-19
Updated: 2019-07-19
Packaged: 2020-07-08 12:15:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,892
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19869490
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blueberryshortcake/pseuds/Statementends
Summary: Jon can’t trust the books his Gran buys him anymore, so he does some digging and finds a book on sewing dresses.





	Gertie's Guide

**Author's Note:**

> Sajwho on tumblr drew a picture of Jon in a dress and I loved it.

He couldn’t really trust his books after the Leitner, but it hadn’t tamed his curiosity. Gran bought the box of books and he wanted to look, even now. 

Even the thought of going for a long wander wasn’t appetising.

Maybe Gran had something though. She had books. None of them had seemed appealing before, but… maybe they would do for now. He snuck into her room feeling a little guilty. He knew he shouldn’t be snooping around, but he was desperate. 

He found it in the corner of her untidy closet.  _ Gertie’s Guide to Everyday Dresses _ .

He ran his fingers over the cover showing a woman dressed in a sensible looking dress his Gran might favor in a brown and purple plaid. The lady’s smile was friendly. This was a book that wouldn’t hurt him. 

He took the book back to his room and carefully took his time with it. The first chapter introduced a cheerful sounding person telling the ladies reading how much money she would save and enjoyment she would gain from learning to sew her new daywear.

The next chapter went into more practical things. He frowned and went over to the sewing box. Needle and thread and little fabric scrap. He couldn’t make a dress from that, but he could practice how to stitch. He took his time practicing the instructions on each page until he felt more confident with it.

He was in the middle of cutting up the old shirt that had always been too big for him when his Gran came home.

“Jonathan Sims what are you doing? Look at this mess!” She scowled. “Why would you do that?”

“I’m learning to make a dress.” He explained holding up the book calmly. 

The old woman blinked. She took the book and flipped through it. Then she glanced at him. It was a significant look. Maybe a resigned one. 

Gran knew how he got when he found an interest, but there was something deeper to it he didn’t understand at the time. 

“Did you… want to wear it too?” She asked. 

“It would be my dress,” He pointed out. 

He wasn’t ignorant. He knew only girls were supposed to wear dresses. But it seemed like a dumb rule, and summer time it got hot. He didn’t really care what people thought of him. He never had. He knew better in a lot of cases. 

He tried not to think of the bully, gobbled up.

“Do you want help?” His Gran asked, making a decision. 

He shook his head. “I want to do it myself.”

She accepted this. Tutted. “Well, if you’re going to go about it, you can’t use a cut up shirt, Jon. Be sensible, that was a nice shirt.”

He didn’t agree, but he didn’t argue either. 

She went into her room and came back with a large square of fabric. “You can use this.”

It looked like it was an old curtain. The pattern was a bit floral for his taste, but it would do for learning at least. 

“Thank you Gran.”

“Clean up your mess and keep it in the corner,” She told him sternly and patted his head. “And--you can wear it if you like… but not outside the house.”

“Why?”

She sighed. “Because Jon.” Like it was obvious.

He wanted to push. He hated when she told him ‘because’ without another word, but… he wanted to get back to his project so he grumbled an agreement and took all his supplies to the corner out of the way and his Gran went into the kitchen to make dinner.

Jon carefully read through the next chapter measuring out and tracing out the pattern. He poked himself with pins a few too many times. Gran called him to dinner, but he didn’t respond until she got in front of him and pulled him to the table. 

He told her what he learned so far.

“That’s nice, Jon.”

She didn’t sound very interested. He ate down his meal and went back to his book. 

He liked this. It was soothing. When he was trying to figure out the measurements and stitching he didn’t have room to think about The Book. Or spider legs. 

Gran shooed him to bed, and shooed him again an hour later when she found he had snuck back out into the living room. 

In bed instead of letting the spider infect his dreams, he thought of stitching. Back and forth through the fabric. How he would shape the skirt. How he would make it all even and measure it properly. Lots of children his age didn’t have the patience to do it right, he told himself. He would get it perfect the first time, go over everything slowly and carefully. 

He didn’t wake up crying, and he didn’t dwell on it. Just went back to his corner still in pajamas. 

“You weren’t at that all night, were you?” Gran asked.

“I got up an hour ago,” Jon said. 

She gave a heavy sigh. “Come eat some cereal.” 

He did, shoveling it into his mouth.

“Slow, Jon.”

He slowed down giving his own heavy sigh. 

He finished up. He was sure he could finish the basic shape today if he was careful and diligent.

He was already planning the next one in his head. He would get better fabric that would suit him. A plaid like the picture on the front cover or maybe just a solid colour. Also there weren’t any pockets. He was sure he could figure out how to make those. Just cut holes in the skirt and sew little sacks in. And since it was a skirt he could make the pockets extra large to keep things in. He smiled to himself thinking about all the things he could collect on his expeditions out of the house. Scowled remembering Gran said he wasn’t allowed to go out in his dress. 

His hair was long though. He let it grow out because he hated getting it cut and it was one of the arguments Gran let him win. If he went far enough out of the neighbourhood no one would know, right? 

He’d have to think about that. There was no way he was going to waste the brilliant idea of big pockets and a cool skirt in the summertime, Gran or no. 

He kept going slow over the next few days, practicing and memorizing the steps. He had almost finished, but it was a school day. Gran sent him out the door.

“No you can’t take it with you. Go on, you can wait to finish.” 

He didn’t like waiting, but she closed the door and he had to go to school.

Most of the girls in his class didn’t wear dresses. Lots of them prefered jeans and overalls. Jenny wore dresses, but hers were a different style than the dress in his book. His were … old fashion, which he was fine with. Jenny liked Spice Girls a lot and a lot of her outfits she tried to base off them. 

He also took the time to look at the boys clothes. All of them were wearing jeans and jean jackets. He didn’t like jean jackets, they got too hot and he didn’t like the feeling of them on his arms. Boys and Girls. Sometimes he didn’t feel much like a boy… but girl wasn’t correct either. As far as he knew that was all there was. School was so unnecessarily complicated. 

He went home. Finished the last few pages and last few stitches. He held it up, admiring the shape. He hesitated before taking it to his room, taking off his pants and shirt and putting it on. It fit pretty well. He swished around the skirt and smiled. He went into the bathroom to take a look. He was right about the floral. It didn’t suit him at all, but he liked how the dress fell. How the skirt was long and covered his knees. 

His next one would have pockets. And it would be a better colour. Something that Lucy in the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe might wear. 

Still. He loved his first dress. He made it himself. He showed his Gran. 

She had a weird look again. Like she wanted to sigh but was holding it in.

“It’s very nice, Jon,” She said.

“Can I get more fabric? I promise I won’t go out if I have some. I want to make another one. With pockets.”

“Oh Jon.” She let her sigh out this time. “You know that…” She hesitated. 

“I know that people are mean to boys that wear dresses. I’m not stupid. But I like it. I want to make another one. I made it myself.” 

“I could get you patterns for boys clothes, if you like.”

He made a face. He didn’t want to read another book about sewing. He knew how to sew. 

He unscrewed his face. “Please?” He asked sincerely. 

She relented, but told him again not to wear them out.

-

When he started working in the Archives he had decided he didn’t care. In college he had experimented. Wearing the clothes he liked out to parties, on dates with Georgie. Some people were rude… or worse to him, most people didn’t care. A few raised eyebrows. 

But at work in a dusty old library he wanted to be comfortable. It was a good job. A dream job. Researching and reading all day the topics he was interested in, and he wanted it to be perfect. He had shown up to his first interview in a sharp skirt. Elias’ expression didn’t show any sort of hostility like he got from a lot of older men. In fact he asked afterward if he had made it himself, how nice the stitching looked. 

So he wasn’t going to hesitate about wearing skirts and dresses to work when he wanted to, especially considering how hot the summer was getting. And he had learned about thermal leggings he could wear underneath that would look nice and keep him warm. No one seemed to have a problem with when he went from trousers one day to skirts the next, well… Steven had. He had been a particularly hostile brute the first month at the Institute. He was constantly making little comments about Jon’s gender and assuming his romantic affiliations and how that apparently made him someone to sneer at. Jon complained to Elias about it.

“He was harassing you about what you’re wearing?” Elias had asked. Jon nodded. He expected Elias to tell him to be a good sport about it. That just because things had changed didn’t mean everyone was so accepting and that he’d just have to be tolerant of the intolerant.

But Steven was gone the next day. Rumour was he was fired. 

When he asked Elias, his boss just smiled.

“He wasn’t a good fit here anyway, Jon. Please don’t hesitate to come to me if you have any problems.” 

He never did. The Magnus Institute was very comfortable for old academia. It felt like being at home in his floral dress again. Getting to wear what he liked.

He made a new dress for his first day as Head Archivist. This was it. The rest of his adult life. Everything figured out. Everything… comfortable. 


End file.
